May 9, 2016

"... and what is being learned about them -- what they don't know, what they believe. Now, you might find it strange for me to say that mainstream leftists can think other leftists are too far to the left. That's not exactly what I'm saying. What I'm saying is they're a little concerned. They think they're the smartest people in the world, don't forget. And they're looking at the Bernie supporters as illogical. It makes no sense. Bernie's an oddball. He's a kook. He's not going anywhere. They look at the average Bernie Sanders supporter or your Black Lives Matter person and they think they're dealing with dumbed-down idiots which are tough to control, because the dumped [sic] down idiots think they are hyper-super educated."

Said Rush Limbaugh today, attempting to explain the recent pieces in liberal media fretting over the suppression of the conservative viewpoint on campus. So the idea is that the liberals are splitting apart, with more moderate liberals — such as Hillary supporters — beginning to regret the left-wing indoctrination of college students. The young people weren't supposed to lurch all the way left. They were only supposed to loathe conservatives, not soften to the charms of Bernie Sanders.

ADDED: Interesting to see Rush using the phrase "off the reservation" after the trouble Hillary had with it so recently.

BUT: I think Rush intentionally invoked Hillary's "off the reservation" remark, because he's talked about it so much, so recently. Here ("she's used to men -- she's got a lot of experience with men -- 'going off the reservation,' insulting Native Americans, by the way, on that, at the same time") and here ("Yeah, she's had to deal with men who go off the reservation.... And Bill never has been off the reservation regarding her career advancement. Now, being off the bedroom reservation? Yeah, constantly"). And here:

Now, then, this off the reservation comment. Trump's saying that that was offensive to him. I think what he's talking about here was, "Well, who lives on reservations? Native Americans, the original owners of this land, the people who were the one with this land when while the European settlers came here and basically took it away from 'em."

And here's Hillary talking about all these guys "off the reservation. Is that what she thinks of Native Americans, that they ought to be on the reservation all the time?...

They don't allow Republicans to get away with that. What do you mean, "offensive figure of speech," and "everybody uses it"? Well, we're gonna start holding Hillary to all these kinds of things, too, and every other Democrat....

She says she has a lot of experience dealing with men. She's only been married to one guy -- men -- who sometimes get off the reservation. I think she's been betrayed by a whole lot of guys. Just my personal opinion, and this is kind of a reveal here. When you get right down to it, she's saying she has a lot of experience dealing with guys like Trump because she been married to Bill Clinton.

That's what she's saying. Being married to Bill Clinton is what has prepared her for Trump, right? And when you get right down to it, that sums up her experience! That is it! And that's another reason why Millennial women say, "Wait a minute. Why are you so imminently [sic] qualified?"

Everybody's being told how qualified Hillary is, how wonderful Hillary is, how great, and Millennial women are saying, "For what?" They are just learning about the Hillary and Bill Clinton era of the 90s. They didn't live through it.... They didn't live through the media era of trying to spike the story.... As they come to learn about it their take on this is not gonna be in any way sympathetic to Hillary. They're gonna say, "What the hell did you put up with this for? We wouldn't. We don't."

I think Rush is onto something. And I was surprised he did not mention the article linked to below (but maybe he did later in the show) since its so on point -- Hillary supporters at Harvard being made to feel like pariahs by the Bernie crowd. Boo-hoo-hoo. And it also reminds me of the #dropouthillary posts on twitter a few days ago. They were absolutely brutal and it certainly looked like they were all coming from Bernie supporters.What does it all mean? It means we are definitely going to need some more popcorn. http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/may/08/harvard-students-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-2016-election

Saying "off the reservation" is apparently a microaggression of the serious kind, perhaps actually a milli-aggression. Lefty activists claiming to speak for [American Indians and Alaska Natives] emerged from their tepees in full war paint to chide Mrs Clinton.

When the injuns go "off the reservation" doesn't that usually mean that they are "on the warpath"?

Seems like a good metaphor to me. What happens if Bernie wins some more states. What happens, Heaven forbid!, if he should win California and go to the convention with more regular delegates than Hilary!?

They think they're the smartest people in the world, don't forget. And they're looking at the Bernie supporters as illogical. It makes no sense..... They look at the average Bernie Sanders supporter or your Black Lives Matter person and they think they're dealing with dumbed-down idiots which are tough to control, because the dumped [sic] down idiots think they are hyper-super educated."

Rush really puts his finger on the issue here: it's two groups both of whom think they're the smartest folks on the planet. Part of that "smartness" also means that they're the most virtuous, too, since you've got to know & understand what's the correct party line to be virtuous.

This is the problem with trying to move outside of revelation based moralities -- 1) virtue becomes a question of "the right knowledge", & thus the mentally dim cannot truly be virtuous & 2) moral questions, which cannot by their nature be adjudicated as if they are simply a concern of empirical facts, start to be judges as if they are questions of empirical fact. Thus, when one disagrees with the moral judgements of such people, one is seen as a denier of simple, obvious fact.

Communism still works a strong fantasy ideal of good times just around the corner once the Party kills off the Society System's leadership and takes the loot home...until they wake up with no loot left except that held by a small band of Secret Police who are killing them next by a vast famine of everything.

They look at the average Bernie Sanders supporter or your Black Lives Matter person and they think they're dealing with dumbed-down idiots which are tough to control, because the dumped [sic] down idiots think they are hyper-super educated."

I am absolutely in awe of all these brilliant people in the #NeverTrump and Bernie camps.

BLM is a reaction to feelings of inadequacy in the beneficiaries of Affirmative Action.

That is why the BLM "activists" at Dartmouth attacked the white students while they were studying in Baker Library.

"liberals are splitting apart, with more moderate liberals — such as Hillary supporters — beginning to regret the left-wing indoctrination of college students. The young people weren't supposed to lurch all the way left. They were only supposed to loathe conservatives, not soften to the charms of Bernie Sanders." No. The split is mostly about tactics, not essential issues. "Moderate" liberals (are there any left? Galston and who else?) agree with the "young people" on most issues that matter. They weren't supposed to "lurch" toward Bernie only because it undermines the pursuit of power, which is the meta-value. Sure, a thinking lefty realizes "free college" is absurd, so you get some pushback from the likes of Krugman, but on big government, tax the rich, crony environmental capitalism, the Supreme Court, foreign policy, and transgenderism there are no essential differences.

Michael K: "...BLM is a reaction to feelings of inadequacy in the beneficiaries of Affirmative Action.

That is why the BLM 'activists' at Dartmouth attacked the white students while they were studying in Baker Library.

Nothing says 'White Privilege' like studying for finals."

Bingo. That whole incident, by the way, has been sent down the memory hole by Dartmouth administration. They respond to queries by saying that nothing can be said because student privacy under FERPA is sacrosanct.

Pretty good deal: start a riot in a public space, with your face all over people's phone cameras, but your name and your likeness and your words and your deeds are going to be locked safely away from public scrutiny, by the people running the asylum.

Chickens coming home to roost. Watching the left turn on each other is as amusing as watching the right turn on each other. The older millennials rejected Hillary 8 years ago and they and their younger siblings are rejecting her now. Hillary's presidency is going to be a joke. The country will be united against her. Doubt she'll even run for a second term

One thing you have to remember about today's college students is that they don't remember the Cold War. At all. 2016-21=1995. They missed the fall of the Berlin Wall by 6 years.

Because of that, signifiers like honeymooning in the Soviet Union don't mean anything to them. For people of a certain age, a detail like that tells you exactly who Bernie is: a half pathetic, half sinister True Believer who will never see a fault in socialism, even when it's right in front of their eyes. PJ O'Rourke had a great essay on a "Volga Peace Cruise" sponsored by The Nation in 1982, and the people he describes are exactly the folks who would later be touting "Democratic Socialism."

With the collapse of socialism after 1989, today's college students have never seen a government that is straightforwardly and forthrightly criticized for governing too far to the left. Chavez would qualify, except he was always promoted as some kind of anti-Bush hero. The Chinese are a weird mixture of official communism and de facto capitalism, and the Cubans are pathetic and isolated. As far as they're concerned, socialists are just Democrats who are ever so much more so.

There is a YUGE difference between Bernie and Hillary. When Bernie says he wants to split up the banks and destroy Wall St - he actually means it.

The NPR "On Point" podcast today had a commercial for Goldman Sachs at the midway point. One commenter actually thought is was meant as a joke. Overall the comments were not happy at the "corporate takeover".

Basically, anybody under a certain age has never seen a socialist defend an actually existing socialist regime. They've never heard anyone mush mouth about the Soviet invasion of the Prague Spring, or Afghanistan, or the Stasi, or the KGB, etc, etc.

Zachary: spot on. Santayana comes to mind. The problem today is IMHO made worse because history is no longer taught, or the history that is taught is sympathetic to socialism and certainly hostile to old white male hegemonies (which somehow the socialist regimes never seem to be). To do the math differently: assume that only people 16 or older would really have absorbed the lesson of the Berlin Wall: they would be 1989-16 = 1973 birth year and now are middle aged, 43 and older. So half the population is pretty well clueless about the Evil Empire.

I don't think the idea that older mainstream liberals are embarrassed by millennials going off the reservation is very credible. Look at Prof. Althouse. She's absolutely unembarrassed by leftist demands for campus censorship. In fact, her preferred tactic is to complain about the horrors of conservative censorship, and to tout as representative the occasional episode where some retired Harvard professors sort of endorse due process or free expression or something.

Maybe this persistent dishonesty reflects subconscious embarrassment, but I leave that sort of psychoanalysis to others.

"There is a YUGE difference between Bernie and Hillary" Yes. But my point was that many Hill supporters are substantively close to Bernie supporters. Progs are not as divided as the "right," or whatever it is now.

Left is right,Up is down,War is peace,Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia,2 + 2 = 5,Stealing is justice,Men who self-dentify as such are woman,Women who self-identify as such are men,Prepare for your 20 minutes of hate of the haters!

Basically, anybody under a certain age has never seen a socialist defend an actually existing socialist regime.

I teach high school history, and my students are shocked by my hatred for communism, and my attacks on things like Che shirts and purses. (One of my colleagues has a Che poster in her room, and pretends not to understand why it offends me so much)

I teach them that Communism was every bit as evil as the fascists, and murdered many millions more than they did. They're shocked when I teach them about Pol Pot.

The assumption of empirical data and the best models for explaining and predicting the natural world as also reinforcing one's own moral virtue, current public sentiment and shared belief in a rather secularly humanist political philosophy seems pretty establishment these days.

I thought institutions of higher Ed were there to challenge conventional wisdom and develop a foundation for rigorous, independent thought:

Shilo the Shill. I can't imagine his hot water bill as he showers off the disgust from defending that beneficiary of the Peter Principle and a fortunate marriage who thought that what American really needed was somebody to attack the young women who were victims of her husband.

Do you think about the thousands of refugees drowned in the Mediterranean fleeing her policies in Libya at night? The millions of refugees from Syria where she advocated for the overthrow of Saddam's Ba'athist buddy Assad?

Here is a you tube of Hillary. You should watch it. It's her, It is not some spam link going to lead you to anything but your fearless leader. Expect for it to be a commercial for Trump.

Look at her glee if you can stomach it. It is not to late, she does not have the nomination locked up yet. My money is that you won't click on the link, as seeing Hillary as she actually is "triggers" you in some way. Well it triggers me too. It should trigger everybody.

So the idea is that the liberals are splitting apart, with more moderate liberals — such as Hillary supporters — beginning to regret the left-wing indoctrination of college students. The young people weren't supposed to lurch all the way left. They were only supposed to loathe conservatives, not soften to the charms of Bernie Sanders.

Exactly right, similar to how unsupportable racism accusations are supposed to be levied solely at conservatives and libertarians not other Democrats / liberals (for example Hillary supporters in the 2008 campaign). The split is between the people who understand the media campaign is solely political branding and those who believe that campaign. The mistakes are (a) misunderstanding or not seeing the implications of institutional behavior and (b) eternal prioritization of the short term at the expense of the long.

Institutions promote those who are most dedicated to them. The easiest way to prove your dedication is to believe whatever positions most benefit your institution, so the people who do so most completely are hired and the most extreme within that group are promoted. Campus activism is extreme because it's essentially a 4 year job interview where only those who prove themselves are hired, and obviously there are many more people who want a life in left wing political activism than their are jobs. Claiming 1 in 5 (later 1 in 4) women are sexually assaulted on campus is a test of candidates willingness to subordinate reality to political necessity. No one who fails this test is even considered, while only the most extreme within this group are hired. This results in candidates' eternal search for new ways to demonstrate how extreme they are.

Some people on the left probably recognized this danger long ago. But they must have considered this a lesser concern because there was no effort at managing this problem for decades. Even now people like Laura Kipnis only speak up to defend themselves, never the initial targets.

Kerry is demanding the overthrow of Assad! At least Bush was trying out an untested idea, not an idea that is known to be bad and has been soundly rejected by the American people. In fact the one mandate that Obama had was to not do shit like that! Why did he choose that tax evading cipher to run our foreign policy?

My wife's part Indian and her father grew up on a reservation. One time a black co-worker of hers gave her grief when she pointed out that Anacostia is a far more dangerous neighborhood than Georgetown (when the co-worker complained of crime in Georgetown--mind you neither of them would voluntarily visit Anacostia). Then this same co-worker made an unrelated crack about someone being "off the reservation."

Lesson--some races are ranked higher than others in the Victim Olympics. The only way to win is to burn down the stadium.

Also, recognize the "moderates" in this dichotomy are those who support accusing their political opponents of racism / sexism / other phobias using evidence they understand is not compelling. We're really discussing a split between far left and the ultra radical left.

Hillary-supporting leftists may be flummoxed at Sanders, but his appeal isn't hard to understand. He's a perfect distillation of American leftism, out and proud, while Hillary has long been a triangulator, a finger-wind tester, and a backstabber. Plus, I wouldn't be surprised if Sanders had some moderates backing him who simply didn't care for Hillary's corruption and incompetence and support him out of protest.

Instead of being confused, they might consider whether they're backing a bad horse.

Brando: "Lesson--some races are ranked higher than others in the Victim Olympics." Amen. One could construct an algorithm using factors such as (1) relative numbers (2) strength of prevailing Narrative (is "400 years of slavery" > "genocide of First Peoples"?) (3) degree of ruthless and unremitting political organization, complete with squads of knee cappers and smear artists, etc. Readers are invited to add and refine.

Based on this, I think Indians are way down the list. Right now La Raza is making a move on the outside of the far turn but Black Grievance has the rail and continues to set the pace.

Anyone, Amerindian or otherwise, can freely go on or off "the" reservation - there are no gates or checkpoints. Living just outside the Navajo reservation, it seemed like the main reason for Amerindians to not leave the reservation was that their pickup's license plates were expired.

HIllary is one hilarious idiot. She says she has a lot of experience with men (like her husband), apparently putting him/them in his/their place. But you know she doesn't know what to do politically and will basically have him running the show.